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Abstract

We demonstrate patterned polarizers for visible wavelengths using dichroic dye in a liquid crystal polymer (LCP) host. Contact lithography is used to pattern a thin alignment layer, which subsequently transfers the pattern to the LCP. A gray dichroic dye mixture for the visible spectrum is optimized and implemented along with LCP to fabricate this polarizer. A peak extinction ratio of 41 was measured at a 633 nm wavelength, while simultaneously showing patterns as small as 3 μm. Finally, multi layer films are demonstrated by fabricating a two layer patterned circular polarizer consisting of a quarter-wave retarder and a color polarizer. Our process has applications in three-dimensional displays, interferometry, optical storage, and polarimeters.

Figures (6)

(a) Transmission spectrum of each dye when integrated into a 10 mg/mL CHCl3 polarizer. (b) Three 10 mg/mL polarizers viewed through a horizontal (left) and vertical polarizer (right). (c) Dye solutions (10 μg/mL dye in CHCl3). (d) Different colors can be obtained using different ratios and concentrations of the dyes. (e) CIE xyY plot of dye colors.

(a) Extinction ratio (dashed) and polarizance (solid) on the left and right axis respectively are shown as a function of wavelength. Three different concentrations of dye are shown; 30, 20, and 10 mg/mL CHCl3. The vertical dotted line at 633 nm shows the wavelength at which the polarizer was imaged at and also has the peak extinction ratio. The horizontal dotted lines indicate the maximum visibility in (b). (b)Visibility data for features ranging from 31 to 3.1 μm, the maximum visibility is shown by the solid line for each dye concentration. (c) Magnified images of the 30 mg/mL polarizer with a 633 nm HeNe source polarized horizontally (top) and vertically (bottom).

(a) The standard deviation of measured transmission between 425 nm to 675 nm is plotted against the purple dye ratio, with separate plots for each yellow dye ratio. The total amount of blue dye is held constant. The optimum ratio of the three dyes is determined to be 10 Blue: 10 Yellow: 2 Purple, and has a standard deviation of 2.1%. (b) The transmission spectrum of the optimized dye is shown, with the gray areas showing the wavelengths excluded from the standard deviation. The bottom right inset shows the gray dye mixture in CHCl3, and the top right shows a polarizer made from the same ratio and viewed through an analyzer.

(a) Extinction ratio (dashed) and polarizance (solid) on the left and right axis respectively are shown as a function of wavelength. The dye was mixed at a ratio of 5 Blue: 5 Yellow: 1 Purple. Three different concentrations of total dye weight in CHCl3 are shown; 50, 25, and 10 mg/mL. The vertical dotted line at 633 nm shows the wavelength at which the polarizer was imaged. The horizontal dotted lines indicate the maximum visibility in (b). (b) Visibility data for features ranges from 5 to 31 μm, and the maximum visibility is shown by the solid line for each dye concentration. (c) Magnified images of the 50 mg/mL polarizer with a 633 nm HeNe source polarized horizontally (top) and vertically (bottom).

A diagram of a patterned circular polarizer is shown. Two stages of LPP/LCP material are used with a buffer of Norland Optical Adhesive in between. The first stage is a quarter-wave plate patterned at 0° and 90°. The second stage is the linear polarizer uniformly aligned at 45° to the first stage.

(a) Extinction ratio (dashed) and polarizance (solid) are shown on the left and right axis respectively. The linear polarizer layer was made with blue dye at a concentration of 25 mg/mL CHCl3. The polarizer was measured as both a circular and linear polarizer to compare the quality of the circular to linear polarization conversion done by the quart-wave layer. The vertical dotted line at 633 nm shows the wavelength at which the polarizer was imaged. The horizontal dotted lines indicate the max visibility in (b). (b) The visibility of features is shown down to resolution of 3 μm. The black line corresponds to the maximum possible visibility of 0.74 at 633 nm.